‘Alien megastructure’ pulsating star could be be one of 15, expert claims

A star discovered in 2015 could be an alien megastructure and it might not be alone, an expert has claimed.

Named KIC 8462852, the yellow-white dwarf star can be found around 1,470 light away.

And space expert Jamie Seidel has claimed that the star, also known as Tabby's Star, is not alone.

He wrote: “It was given the nickname Boyajian’s Star (Tabby’s Star) or the 'WTF Star' after astronomer Tabetha Boyajian discovered its odd behaviour.

“Its brightness varied by an unprecedented 22 per cent, but even more startling was the speed and randomness of its flickering.

“How a star could pulse in such an erratic, dramatic way remains a mystery.

“Most natural interstellar activity is as regular as clockwork – it’s all about orbits, how these interact, and the patterns they create – no such pattern has been found with Tabby’s Star.

“Despite this oddness, it does fit one proposed profile.”

According to Mr Seidel, In 1960, astronomer Freeman Dyson published a paper called the “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation”, in which he proposed the energy needs of advanced civilisations would become “so great” that it would need to cover its “entire star with solar panels”.

Known as the “Dyson sphere megastructure”, it could be observed from Earth.

And now, a new theory claims that KIC 8462852 is not alone.

Mr Seidel added: “In fact, it may be just one of a tight cluster of some 15 stars that show the same bewildering changes in brightness.

Astronomer Edward Schmidt, the author of the report – which is very long and very scientific – has attempted to understand the star's behaviour by finding others of the same nature.

He writes: “It is premature to try to explain the existence of the clump.

“However, the possibility that extraterrestrial civilisations might have developed interstellar travel and expanded beyond their original planetary systems has been widely discussed in connection with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence”.

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